St. Augustine

Last Wednesday, Arne and I drove over to St. Augustine, a two hour fifteen minute drive from here. After checking into our room, upgrading to a suite with an ocean view, we walked on the beach and in the surf. Arne pointed out a young couple playing "pickleball" in the surf. After dinner at a Mexican restaurant, we settled onto our "divans" to read and look out at the ocean. Oh, yeah, we watched American Idol even though we said we didn't care who won after James was gone.

Thursday, we bought tickets for the Red Train Tour of St. Augustine. We rode by the oldest jail, the oldest house, and lots of other old buildings and forts. St. Augustine is the oldest city in the United States. We toured the Lightner Museum and Ripley's Believe It or Not. On the way back to our hotel, which was on St. Augustine Beach, we stopped for a tour of the Lighthouse and Museum. We spent over an hour learning the history of the lighthouse. I climbed the 220 stairs to the top. As I came out the door, I was hesitant to look over the railing and stuck close to the wall. After about 5 minutes, I was feeling more comfortable and worked my way over to the edge and waved to Arne down below.

Friday, we checked out of the hotel and drove up the coast about 15 miles to Sawgrass where The Players Championship was played last week. We had a wonderful tour of the beautiful clubhouse. Our guide was an elderly gentleman who told many interesting stories as we toured the building, looking at the many paintings and photographs. This clubhouse was opened in 2007 and is 77,000 square feet. There's a dining room and locker room exclusively for past winners of The Players tournament.


From there we drove half an hour to the World Golf Hall of Fame. We spent a couple hours reliving golf history and viewing items given by those players in the Hall of Fame. There were two special exhibits. One was a tribute to Bob Hope while the other was to Nancy Lopez.

We got home around 8 PM Friday night. Arne had been having trouble with his right foot while we were gone. Saturday morning he told me he hadn't slept because of the pain. His foot and calf were very swollen. I took him to Urgent Care where he was told he had overused it. I think there's something more going on and he's going to go to his VA doctor for further evaluation. At least he was able to sleep last night and is walking much better. Yesterday he actually used a cane Aaron had given him for Christmas several years ago.